Drug use more rife in middle classes

MIDDLE-CLASS Scots are now more likely than the unemployed to take drugs.

In a blow to the old Trainspotting image of workless addicts, a new government survey has revealed that six per cent of Scots in professional or managerial jobs used illegal substances in the last year.

That compares with a figure of just 4.6 per cent for those who are out of work, a clear sign, said experts, that drug dealers would rather target those who can pay for their products.

"These are very stark statistics," said Professor Neil McKeganey, Scotland's leading authority on the nation's drugs problem. "They show that drug use is spreading across all social classes, that it is increasingly being seen as a safe activity by lots of professional people."

The new figures were revealed by the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey for 2008-2009, the biggest study of its kind ever carried out north of the border. More than 10,000 people answered detailed questions about crime, including drug use.

The survey discovered that 12.5 per cent – or one in eight – of professional and managerial workers had been offered an illegal substance in the last year.

Cocaine dealers have long seen Scotland's middle classes as lucrative customers – with one major Glasgow gang jailed in 2007 after they were found targeting the wealthy professionals of the west end of Glasgow.

But in recent years use of the drug has spread downmarket too.

Police sources last night stressed they believe that cannabis remains the favourite drug of choice among the middle classes.

The drug is still very much the most popular illicit high in Scotland, according to the survey, which said just over one in 10 Scots of all classes had been offered the substance in the last year.

David Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, a policy and information charity, stressed that the market had quickly adapted to the differing needs of differing classes.

He said: "Drug use occurs across society and fluctuates according to cultural norms and fashions over time.

"For example, over recent years we have seen the use of cocaine moving from being a drug used primarily by the wealthier to be being more widely used across society.

"Recent indications are that low purity of cocaine for the mass market locally is resulting in a significant shift in use to legal highs, such as mephedrone."